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Post 2015 Development Agenda

What are MDGs?

In September 2000, world leaders congregated at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt theUnited Nations Millennium Declaration and its eight key objectives that were to be achieved by 2015. These eight objectives are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Goal 1 - Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 2 - Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3 - Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4 - Reduce child mortality

Goal 5 - Improve maternal health

Goal 6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7 - Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8 - Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Each goal has specific stated targets and dates for achieving those targets. There are also a series of measurable health and economic indicators for each target. For more information on MDGs, please visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

United Nations Summit on Millennium Development Goals, 2010

In 2010, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon called world leaders together to review the progress of the MDGs, to accelerate action on these eight goals and to think of ways to advance the development agenda beyond 2015.

The high level conference concluded with a Global Action Plan to achieve the eight goals by the target date and it also saw new commitments and initiatives on women and children’s health.

THE POST 2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

The post 2015 agenda can be simply explained as a process that will help to define the future development framework that will succeed the MDGs, the target date of which is 2015.

At the 2010 Summit, world leaders and UN Member States took steps towards the advancement of a development agenda beyond 2015. This has now led to a process of global consultations on the post-2015 agenda. Many civil society organizations and research institutions have also joined and are quite active in the process of the 2015 agenda.

For the Post-2015 agenda, Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon established a UN System Task Team that would coordinate the preparations for beyond 2015. In 2012, he also announced a High Level Panel, comprising of 27 members whose task would be to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015. This panel is co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom. The other 24 members includes leaders from the Civil Society, Government and the Private Sector.

The work of this High Level Panel is guided by 24 framing questions, a list of which can be found here. The Panel will be submitting its recommendations on the post-2015 agenda to the Secretary General at the end of May 2013.

DISABILITY – MDGs AND THE POST-2015 AGENDA

The MDGs represent a concerted global and collaborative effort to eradicate poverty. These goals are particularly designed to address the needs of the world’s poorest and marginalized citizens.

What is striking is that these goals with its 21 targets and 60 indicators do not address DISABILITY. The 1 billion population of persons with disabilities all over the world are not even mentioned in the UN Millennium Declaration.

The omission of disability is visibly a matter of concern since it is closely associated with poverty, especially in the Global South. The MDGs seek to encapsulate development targets of the world – but they leave out an extremely marginalized but important population – persons with disabilities.

As we now move closer to the target year, the focus of the world is on the 2015 framework. Mainstreaming disability into the Post-2015 Agenda is the need of the hour and a global voice of the movement echoes this thought.

The High Level Panel will submit its report on 31st July 2013 and we need to ensure that Disability and Inclusive Development is a cross-cutting theme across all the goals. Disability cannot be looked at in isolation and cannot be ignored.

CONSULTATIONS:

Many regional, national and online thematic consultations have been taking place for stakeholders to come together at one platform and debate the Post-2015 Development Agenda. One such web platform was the www.worldwewant2015.org that ended recently on April 5, 2013.

Many of DPI’s Members were visible on this Forum, which was also moderated in different languages by DPI representatives.

On April 5, 2013, only 1000 days remain until the end of the 2015 target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.